Creating a successful marketing campaign takes time, energy, and resources.

There are often wider

teams involved to ensure the campaign works and generates the required results.
Sometimes things go wrong and it’s often for the same reasons: lack of planning, preparation and
understanding.
As we have consulted and trained with many businesses over the last 20 years, we have seen many
different mistakes which result in disastrous campaigns. Yet there are some common mistakes we see
that are often repeated. Some examples are summarized here so you can avoid history repeating itself
in your organization.

About the author

Annmarie Hanlon is the Smart Insights expert commentator on online and
offline marketing strategies for business. Annmarie is the MD of Evonomie and
author of Quick Win Marketing, and co-author of Quick Win Digital Marketing.
She runs social media workshops in the UK and Ireland and shares marketing
tips and news in her blog, B2B Marketing. You can follow Annmarie
on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn.

1. Unclear campaign goals

One of the earliest steps in the campaign planning process is setting clear goals for the campaign. It is
important to make these as specific as possible while planning in order to be able to accurately assess
the campaign once it has been completed. You may find that your brand reaches an audience you
hadn’t intended to when you start, but it is essential to establish the initial aims of your campaign in
order for your KPIs and metrics to be fully understood after the campaign has finished.
How do you decide what to set as a campaign goal? Use our VQVC model to ensure you are steering
your campaign messages and content towards metrics that will have an impact on your business,
rather than ‘glamour stats’. After all, how valuable are page views when none of them lead to sales or
mailing list signups?
VQVC stands for:

 Volume: Improvement of unique visitors to your site, brand or campaign mentions in social
media, growth of social media following, increase of relevant backlinks to your site.
 Quality: Proportion of visitors that interact and convert to lead or sale due to your campaign
(through sources such as email, banners, and PPC).
 Value: Sales and profit value, revenue per visit, goal value per visit.
 Cost effectiveness: Cost should be compared to campaign media investment to calculate ROI.

So what should I do about it?

Use the SMART framework to create objectives that you can easily plan and assess performance
against. SMART stands for objectives that are:

 Specific
 Measurable
 Actionable
 Relevant
 Time-bound

See this post for more information.

2. Failing to plan for change

Over the last decade, we have witnessed new technological developments at a galloping pace. I
remember companies asking me in 1995 if they really needed a website as they had a ‘very nice
brochure’. Today it’s impossible to conceive a new business idea without considering your digital
footprint, yet so many, well-known companies have done this.
HMV, the UK music distributor ignored warnings about how music downloading and distribution was
changing. In 2013 the firm went into financial administration. The original team left and a new buyer
emerged and the business returned as a reinvented brand, offering a wider selection of ways to access
music and film – which is what they should have been doing. At the close of 2018, HMV again sat on the
brink of collapse as the rapid increase in on-demand streaming platforms hit their sales, particularly at
Christmas. Time will only tell if the brand will find a way to get ahead of entertainment trends and
become a proactive company, rather than a reactive one at risk of going under.
Eastman Kodak, typically just known as the film company Kodak, hit a stock price of over $94 USD in
1997. The company was so successful, that it believed its brand would counter the digital revolution
without having to adapt to change. Looking forward twenty years, to January 2017, the stock price sits
below $15 and the company has re-emerged as a technology company ‘focused on imaging’.
Kodak stock price chart
Companies that fail to adapt to the market have always failed. Within our digital environment, it is
more obvious and easier to track when errors are made. The three common denominators between
these two companies include:

 Over-confidence in the brand equity

 Failing to understand how the customers had changed
 The lack of planning

So what should I do about it?

A PESTLE analysis provides an early warning system of changes in the market, especially when
combined with a TOWS matrix which illustrates strategic options and is one of the essential marketing
models in our free guide.

Recommended resource: Digital strategy toolkit

Monitor the market to ensure your team’s knowledge is always up to

date. Better still, explore the digital strategy toolkit to ensure your
organisation has a clear and further vision of its market and its customers and
doesn’t fail.

Access resource

3. Lack of brand integration

Brands have a wealth of channels to communicate with customers through, but with each new page,
social profile or email, the more important brand integration becomes. You need your brand image to
be uniform across every channel you utilize to ensure your brand ideas and messages are
communicated clearly, removing any doubt that customers are dealing with your company, rather than
one of your competitors.
British Airways appear to have separate teams managing their website and social media pages as there
is little consistency between their online communications.
Let’s explore some examples.
The BA website shows a destination.
British Airways website (January 2019)
As a corporate page, perhaps the LinkedIn page would be a little different, but it doesn’t even use the
same logo style and doesn’t bother to add a banner image.

British Airways LinkedIn page (January 2019)

The Facebook page uses the same logo as on the LinkedIn page, but that’s where the similarities end. It
features a video banner, as supported by Facebook pages, but it features graphics that do not fit the
British Airways aesthetic on any other channel. To top it off, the banner ends on the logo from the
company’s homepage, but the Facebook page itself uses the logo from the LinkedIn page!
British Airways Facebook page (January 2019)
The Twitter page (if you find the right one) also uses the same logo that’s used everywhere except the
website. Another plane going in a different direction and the profile image covers the other social
channels being promoted.
British Airways Twitter page (January 2019)
The Instagram page bears very little resemblance to any other parts of the online identities. The same
logo and a connection to Twitter, but that’s it. This demonstrates a lack of integration across all
channels.
British Airways Instagram page (January 2019)
We’ve spoken about the integration between traditional and online communications before. British
Airways is a great example a complete fail in integration. This may be due to several teams being
located in different buildings who are managing different parts of the online estate. It may also be due
to different responsibilities. It may be due to issues between departments. Either way, they are failing
to coordinate efforts, communicate and share the imagery.

So what should I do about it?

Integration provides greater authenticity and a seamless experience for the user. The 4Cs for marketing
communications provides a useful audit checklist when applied to both your online and offline assets. It
enables you to benchmark your competitors and conduct a digital marketing audit on your business to
assess if there is there clarity and consistency, which leads to credibility and competitiveness.

Strategy Recommendation: Integrating sales and marketing

Larger organisations have different challenges with managing their internal
sales and marketing teams, as well as liaising with agencies. Plus, it’s likely they
are delivering different content for different audiences.

4. Failing to understand the international

audience
You would imagine that businesses would realize by now that they need to understand their audiences.
At a time where laser-focussed targeting is available via social media such as Facebook, where you can
drill down into your audience’s gender, age, location, and even their favourite TV programme, you
might be misled into thinking that the biggest brands would ensure they had access to excellent
insights and research.
The truth is quite scary and shows the opposite. One of the biggest drinks brands in the world, Coca-
Cola, totally missed the mark on the major political implications of one of their marketing campaign.
Coca-Cola typically aim for ‘one size fits all’ ad campaigns. Their universal campaigns, such as the TV
ad showing the Coca-Cola truck arriving before Christmas, tend to feature images and music, no words,
so they can apply in any geographical location. In Russia, Coca-Cola has long been portrayed as a
symbol of the West, with feelings of hope, fun, and freedom. In 2016, the product, along with many
other Western goods, was banned as the country tried to reduce foreign imports.
Trying to connect more with their customers in Russia, they created a special New Year’s card showing
a map of Russia to share.
However, the map was out of date and ignored the Russian annexation of Crimea. Launched in 2006,
the Russian based social networking platform VK (previously VKontakte) saw its members complaining
and a boycott started.
VK Members in Russia: call to boycott of Coca-Cola – 2016
As a result, Coca-Cola had to reissue the map. However, this made matters worse. Crimea is in the
Ukraine and the annexation by Russia in 2014, has divided the country, with those for and against
Russia’s actions. The pro-Ukraine, anti-Russian audience tweeted to show their distaste for Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola boycott tweet example
The whole incident became a firestorm. Politicians got involved, official letters of apology were issued
and red faces all round. Coca-Cola blamed an outside agency! As Coca-Cola wrote in an apology letter
“We removed the social media post as soon as we became aware of it.”
Clearly the American company was not paying attention to world politics.

So what should I do about it?

If you are working in other countries, you need to know something about the country and to be
sensitive towards political issues. Speak to your in-country teams and get their advice on any creative
assets being produced, especially if a campaign is intended to be humorous or ‘tongue-in-cheek’ –
what is deemed acceptable varies greatly depending on the country you’re targeting.

5. Failing to be aware of data use awareness

Since the first recognized social media platform, SixDegrees, started in 1996, we’ve witnessed a
constant evolution of platforms, applications and functionality.
All social media platforms collect masses of data on their users and because of this, one factor on the
increase is the terms and conditions. They have become seriously long legal documents. Over the years
many companies have tried alternative approaches to encourage better understanding of the T&Cs.
Some years ago, Google changed its T&Cs with the note at the top to try and encourage its users to
really read the content “We’re changing our privacy policy and terms. Not the usual yada yada. Learn
more”.
If you’re in business it is essential to know how data management laws affect you, especially in the
th
wake of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) being implemented on May 25 2018.
The UK insurance company Admiral scored a home goal and ignored the rules.
They developed an app which was innovative and aimed at younger drivers. The app would be
available via Facebook and its aim was to reward better drivers. Using ‘content analysis’ within the
users’ comments, this would also make them aware of individuals who represented a higher insurance
risk, due to the tone and style of language used.
As a business owner or manager you might be thinking ‘Wow! Why didn’t anyone else do this?’ But
there’s a good reason that this concept has never been launched before. Facebook won’t allow
companies to facilitate sales decisions based on specific personal data. In the face of widespread
public pressure and all the news media expanding the story, Facebook disallowed the app and all the
development costs were wasted. It may be that Admiral considers an alternative path and explores this
again in the future.
You can read the full story on Admiral here.

So what should I do about it?

Consider the following questions when it comes to data management:

1. Where do you collect your customer data?

2. What data do you collect from your customers?
3. How much of that data do you use?
4. Do your customers know that you collect and use the data in the way you do?
5. When do you delete that data?
6. Who do you share data with?
7. Does your privacy notice accurately reflect how you use data?

Strategy Recommendation: Handling customer data

You should review how your organisation collects data and how it uses data. Be
aware of privacy and the wider rules and policies governing data.

6. Not understanding social media

th
2017 saw the inauguration of the 45 President of the United States. Whilst many were surprised, the
last three elections in the USA have been won on social media. This time it’s likely there were other
issues, but looking at the Twitter accounts of Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton, it’s easy to see how
Trump gained more traction.
Back in 1992, whilst at Stanford University, Jonathan Steuer was exploring virtual reality. In his paper
“Defining Virtual Reality: Dimensions Determining Telepresence” he wrote about two dimensions of
‘telepresence’ (that’s about the feeling of being really there, from a distance) vividness and
interactivity. Since then many researchers have explored these two areas and one conclusion is that
the greater the vividness and interactivity, the greater the connection.
Hillary Clinton joined Twitter on 9 April 2013 whereas Donald Trump joined some years before on 18
March 2009. There is an idea that the more tweets, the more followers. When I extracted some tweets
for analysis, this showed that the Clinton team issued more tweets, on average 11 per day whereas the
Trump team posted 9 per day. When it came to replies and retweets, the Clinton team were more active
posting an average of 17 a day compared to Trump’s 10.
So it’s not about the volume of content. Trump had over 21 million followers against the 12 million for
Clinton. So why did he gain more followers with fewer tweets? That’s where we go back to the idea of
vividness and interactivity. Let’s explore some examples.
The team Clinton Twitter account is run by others and we’re aware that “Tweets from Hillary signed –
H”. Notwithstanding this, the errors with these are:

Using the third person

When you’re a student it’s essential to write reports in the third person. It provides an objective stance
and takes away the emotion. With a Twitter account you would do the opposite, yet Hilary is spoken
about in the third person. The odd thing is that meant to be her twitter account and yet this
emphasises the distance between Clinton and her audience, removing interactivity.

Tweet by Mrs. Clinton’s Team

Tweet by Mrs. Clinton’s Team

Twitter isn’t a report

Once again, as a student, you’d be expected to add quotes into speech marks, so that you weren’t
committing plagiarism. In Twitter you say it as it is and if you want to credit the speaker, the usual
format is via @TwitterName. Strangely some of the Clinton tweets are put into inverted commas,
speech marks – why? This appears to be adding quotes to Twitter and again this shows it’s not really
owned by Hillary, further removing interactivity.
Tweet by Mrs. Clinton’s Team

Tweets lack vividness

There’s a hierarchy of tweet vividness, which ranges from simple posts with some words, to more vivid
content with a combination of video, images and words. The Clinton tweets were largely posts and
some links. Frankly, the content was dull.
Tweet by Mrs. Clinton’s Team

Tweet by Mrs. Clinton’s Team

If you compare the Clinton tweet content to the Trump team, they also added simple posts, but the
language changed with UPPERCASE, use of hashtags and exclamation marks for drama!
Donald Trump tweeting, using caps
Donald Trump tweeting, using caps
The vividness increased with photos added direct to Twitter and invited followers to meet at events.
Plus the language was also vivid, provocative, and inflammatory, so much so that even non-supporters
watched the tweets.
Donald Trump tweeting, using imagery
Team Trump also added many videos and links to the social media such as Facebook. This adds further
engagement as everyone in the photo is sure to share, post and re-tweet. Harnessing the crowd is a
clever concept. They do the work for you.
Donald Trump tweeting, using video
It seems as if the Clinton team failed to make the leap to digital transformation. They relied on tried
and tested methods of campaigning that worked in the past. But the world has changed. Trump’s team
saw first-hand what they needed to do and it’s clear that Trump managed his own social media with
several public rants. The rants demonstrated he could use the platform and was connected to the
audience and if anything, amplified his reach far beyond the USA.
If your team is struggling to harness the benefits of social media it may be that they’re not using it in
the right way and are trying to apply traditional methods to digital channels. It may be that you need a
digital transformation plan.
So what should I do about it?
Start with a competitor audit. Explore what they are doing across social media so that there is an
evidence base. To conduct a digital audit see our Digital Marketing Models Guide which includes
frameworks and mindtools to create digital audits, strategies and plans.

7. Over-protecting a brand
The 2016 Olympics saw increased intellectual property rights being developed, so much so that there
was confusion about who could and couldn’t tweet using the hashtag #Rio2016.
Some years ago, Victoria Beckham is said to have explored trademarking her name. When she
discovered this meant she could no longer be mentioned without her permission, she realized news
coverage would decrease significantly, so abandoned any plans that may have been put into place.
The Olympic organizers were trying to stop businesses profiting from association with their brand but
as a result, there was general confusion and ordinary people avoided using the hashtag. A parody
account called @Rule40 started and warned people when they were infringing copyright and Twitter
started deleting #rio2016 tweets as it breached copyright.
In London in 2012 the #London2012 generated more than 150 million tweets within 16
days. #Rio2016 generated more than 187 million tweets, that’s 37 million more or a 24% increase yet
smart phone ownership in the same period increased by more than 30%.
People were afraid of using the hashtag and most-visited page was one from the BBC about how to or
not to use the hashtag.

So what should I do about it?

If you want greater engagement, don’t over-protect the brand. Does it really matter if a few small
businesses take advantage of an international event? Focus on the bigger picture, rather than spurious
and irritating action, that exclude the real audience.

Recommended resource: Digital branding and brand storytelling

If you’re responsible for a major brand and want engagement rather than
exclusion, you probably need to explore two of our expert member guides,
Digital Branding and Brand Storytelling which are part of ourDigital Branding
toolkit.

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8. Using digital media like traditional media

Digital media provides a different platform from traditional media yet many companies continue to
apply the same old rules to digital.
One example is British Airways and their use of Twitter.
British Airways used to issue a daily weather report, which was clearly computerized. If you are a
nervous passenger, do you really want to know if it’s wet and windy? But it’s deeper than this. How
does a daily automated weather update contribute to the brand?

British Airways Twitter weather updates

British Airways’ responses to customers are lengthy. Instead of adopting clipped content on Twitter,
the team are speaking to the customers in formal and formulaic language. Look at the example here.
The responses are so long that their responses are 1, 2 or 3 tweets, hence the ‘1/3’, ‘2/3’ and ‘3/3’.
Then explore the language further: ‘if this hasn’t arrived due to the incorrect email being added’ that’s
61 characters whereas ‘oops, perhaps wrong email?’ is just 26 characters.
In the earlier tweet 2/3 the response from BA is ‘There is an option to edit your contact information
here. You can also request a duplicate e-ticket’ that’s 99 characters and could have been just 43 – over
50% shorter – with ‘Edit your info and get a duplicate e-ticket’.

British Airways uses multiple tweets to convey a message

Multisyllabic words are great, but when you’re using a platform with a restricted character count, it’s
worth re-thinking the approach. This whole three-tweet episode could have been just one, the key
message is less than 60 characters “Hi oops! Change your email here and ask for new e-ticket here”.
This would need less time and hassle for staff and a faster response, with a positive resolution, for the
customer.
This makes me think about the company’s objectives. It is clearly not customer focused and it’s about
the process. They tell the customer off (I feel bad reading this) and then treat them like an idiot. So if
it’s actually just about the process, remove the people and let a machine do this instead. It would be
harder to get irritated with a machine! Machines have no empathy and no emotion, neither do these
responses.
Plus, these tweets are not seen by the company as ‘content’ just as a process.

So what should I do about it?

Make sure you have clear objectives for social media responses. See this post for more information. Then
you can create a structured content management plan to reach and convert more using the power of
online content. See our 7 Steps to Success Content Marketing Strategy Guide.

9. Lack of online and offline integration

It’s fantastic when the head office team has a great campaign idea and go ahead and launch it. It’s less
helpful when they forget to share the idea with everyone in the business!
How many times have you heard ‘well, they didn’t tell me?’ or ‘I don’t know anything about this?’
Not informing the wider company of the campaign detail and the poor integration of people, media,
and channels is common. It’s often the first tweet, phone call or face-to-face feedback that resolves the
issue.
One of the reasons this occurs is that head office teams are so busy trying to gain first-mover advantage
and deliver campaigns quickly that some elements, such as people in stores or in call centres, can be
an afterthought.
Starbucks is an enthusiastic supporter of Earth Day which occurs on April 22. The mission of Earth Day
is to broaden the environmental movement worldwide. As Starbucks uses so many takeaway cups, it is
keen to reduce waste, so the idea is that on this day they give a free coffee to those using reusable
mugs.
Starbucks Earth Day advertisement
But this was not without challenges! Participating stores only, whilst stocks last, and as Money Saving
Expert discovered, some staff were unaware of the offer.

Source: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/deals-hunter/2016/04/19/starbucks-1-drink/
Starbucks managed this well with the words ‘To avoid any confusion, we have issued a re-notification to
all stores today.”

So what should I do about it?

Ensure that all information behind every campaign you run is communicated to online and offline
members of staff. Involve major stakeholders from mediums that will be effected early in the decision-
making process so that any issues or concerns can be raised and dealt with when the campaign is being
planned, rather than in the middle of the campaign itself!
For more information, see our campaign planning resource.

Strategy Recommendation: Integrate multi channel campaigns

Plan offline and online campaigns together as one large campaign, each
element whether online or offline is all part of the same campaign. Read our
article on ‘The ingredients for an effective integrated marketing campaign’.

10. Not completing a post-campaign review

You can only plan for the future if you learn from the past. While executing a campaign can be a tiring
process, reviewing its effectiveness is essential when planning your next move. You may feel that a
campaign that drives only a handful of sales can be written off as a failure, or a quick success could be a
flash in the pan, but the important thing is to dig into the data you have behind each campaign and see
what you can learn moving forward.
Conducting a post-campaign review helps you:

 Understand what elements of the campaign worked well/ not so well

 Learn how the target audience responded to the campaign
 Review ultimate effectiveness of the campaign versus objectives
 Discuss the campaign with key stakeholders
 Provide valuable learnings for future campaigns

So what should I do about it?

There are five steps to the review process:

 Review the campaign’s strategy and objectives: Assess the performance of the campaign
against the KPIs that were set for it, as well as qualitative factors such as how consumers may
have reacted to it on social media.
 Give an overview of the campaign’s creative approach: Creating a timeline of activity over
the campaign will show who delivered elements of the campaign and whether they were
delivered on time.
 Break down results by channel: Each channel that is being measured should have its results
assessed against its objectives, with important KPIs and metrics presented so they are easy to
understand. Primary channels to report on include social media, search, and website
performance.
 Write an executive summary: This is so major stakeholders can quickly learn the key findings
from the report, and your most pertinent information can be found if the report is brought up
at a later date.
 Set recommendations for next steps: To ensure that the information found in your report is
acted upon, write the key recommendations that should be adopted for future campaigns.
These could be correcting past mistakes, channels that need optimizing or positive outcomes
that should be duplicated.

Recommended resource: Post-campaign analysis report template

The structure for conducting a post-campaign review is relatively simple,

though it is essential to have one central document for you to keep all of your
analysis. Use our post-campaign analysis report template to simplify the
process and ensure nothing is missed when writing your report.

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